Career path

SupportThis

Looking for advice, here are the highlights to make this brief :

Joined a company three years back.
1 year back asked to do a six month stint in production support from development.
I moved roles, no contract change etc. doing legacy language dev / support.
At the end of six months I met with the support manager to arrange transfer back, they said that I was still needed in support.
This has now been going on an extra six months, so the support manager has no intention of moving me back. The dev manager is not much help.

Has anyone else been in this situation ? At the moment the only option I can see is to quit, but I want this to be the last thing I do, not the first.

ChRoMe

SupportThis wrote: »

Looking for advice, here are the highlights to make this brief :

Joined a company three years back.
1 year back asked to do a six month stint in production support from development.
I moved roles, no contract change etc. doing legacy language dev / support.
At the end of six months I met with the support manager to arrange transfer back, they said that I was still needed in support.
This has now been going on an extra six months, so the support manager has no intention of moving me back. The dev manager is not much help.

Has anyone else been in this situation ? At the moment the only option I can see is to quit, but I want this to be the last thing I do, not the first.

Start preparing your CV, thats a ****ing piss take.

Jim2007

SupportThis wrote: »

This has now been going on an extra six months, so the support manager has no intention of moving me back. The dev manager is not much help.

Could it be that he does not want you back... the harsh reality is that no manger lends out his best talent for longer than he/she has to. If you are not happy with the situation, it is probably time to start polishing up the resume.

ChRoMe

Jim2007 wrote: »

the harsh reality is that no manger lends out his best talent for longer than he/she has to.

Its very likely his line manager was instructed to do the move, rather than trying to get rid of OP.

SupportThis

Quit is hopefully my last resort. Its obviously an option, but i don't want it to be the first action, but if its my only action...

I would agree a manager doesnt give away thier best resource, however at the time i was the only resource mid project and had ties to the work that was to be supported. I would like to think that i wasn't ejected from development, however i will never know that.

Edit, there is also an director inbetween the managers who requested a developer to cover this work in support. So my dev managers hands are tied.

srsly78

The only leverage you have is threatening to quit. Best to have something lined up before you try this.

You will probably easily get a better job, which will come with a big payrise.

Colonel Panic

Your only option is to leave. Employers really suit themselves and only care about your career path when it's in line with their needs.

You leaving is nothing personal, you should suit yourself. You've got experience in development now, on paper at least, so you've got your foot in the door. Pay rises and new things are calling!

SupportThis

Thanks all for the advice, it looks I only have one option the option to leave. I really hoped there would be more angles I hadn't considered.

Dave!

I'd agree that you should just start looking elsewhere. It can be hard to find Devs willing to do Prod Support—full-time, at least—so your manager is probably just trying to cling onto you in that role so that he doesn't have to get someone else to do it. It's convenient for him, but obviously a sh*t gig for you.

If you really want to stay at the company, you could grab the manager and tell him you're done with Prod Support and he has to get someone else to do it. Be prepared for some sort of negative response though, and you possibly feeling you have to quit anyway—but less discreetly/cleanly than if you didn't talk to the manager.

Phoebas

If the support manager says you're still needed there, can you compromise and ask him to agree a date by which you'll return to development (and have it agreed both with the support and dev managers)?

If you spend too long out of development you could irreparably damage your career and you'll be kicking yourself that you didn't fight for it now.

Merrion

Does your place have decent HR? If so, I'd suggest you arrange a clarification meeting with the two managers concerned.

ChRoMe

Merrion wrote: »

Does your place have decent HR? If so, I'd suggest you arrange a clarification meeting with the two managers concerned.

What would you expect to achieve from that?

beauf

Support goes to the people who will do it, because most devs won't. Because as you've discovered its very hard to get back out of it. Even if they do give you some development, they will keep calling you back to cover support when theres no one else to do it.

You'll have to call their bluff but be prepared to walk if your bluff is called.

Colonel Panic

Agreed, you should never show aptitude for things you don't want to do!

monsterdev

Never upskill in legacy technologies ! This will happen in every company you work in.
Let this be a harsh lesson learned

ChRoMe

monsterdev wrote: »

Never upskill in legacy technologies ! This will happen in every company you work in.
Let this be a harsh lesson learned

Where does it say the support is of legacy tech?

beauf

Maybe he meant as a general point not necessarily, in relation to the OP.

Though all new tech will be in development first, then support. If it lasts long enough to make it to support.

billy3sheets

A company has to balance it's business needs with the needs of it's employees. The business needs come first as that's why it's a business but it should hopefully not be to the ultimate detriment of your career. Sometime there is no option but to get out.
As someone who has had to deal with similar situations more than once, from both sides, here's my advice:

1.Find out which one of the managers is your line manager and arrange a meeting with him specifically to discuss your career.

2. Explain your concerns & that you are only prepared to continue in Support for an agreed fixed period.

3. 1 month from the end of the fixed period, notify your manager that you are preparing to transfer at the end of the month and would like to start handover to your replacement.

4. If your replacement is not on hand or you are pushed back on your transfer, review the situation again yourself and make your decision.

In the meanwhile, survey the jobs market to see if there are possible openings out there that you could fill. Look for where skills are in demand or interesting to you and study them outside of work - you can learn most things for free using tutorials online. Someone who has put in extra effort to learn outside of work always impresses.

When & if you do start your jobhunt, be patient. Wit for a job that really interests you rather than the first one to get you out of your current situation.


Hope this helps.

ChRoMe

billy3sheets wrote: »

2. Explain your concerns & that you are only prepared to continue in Support for an agreed fixed period.

That action could possibly have quite negative consequences. Making such demands/ultimatums can reflect on your image badly (not saying that's fair, but such is the way)

OP just GTFO, you are a developer the market is very nice at the moment

beauf

You need to have won the battle, have another job, before you fight it.

Dave!

If you do go for a new job, be prepared if they ask you why you want to leave your current job. If you say that you wanted to get back into development, then they may ask you if you brought this up with your current manager, and if not why not.

Sparks

billy3sheets wrote: »

A company has to balance it's business needs with the needs of it's employees. The business needs come first as that's why it's a business but it should hopefully not be to the ultimate detriment of your career.

While the first part of that is on balance true, on no account is any employee of any company under any duty to sacrifice their career or their immediate best interests for the company.

That's not to say - obviously enough - that you can't do so (and the death march mindset we see way too much of in our industry is a testament to the fact that we're generally flexible in this); just that you don't have any duty to do so.

Frankly, if I were the OP, I'd have been jobhunting long before the point where this thread started. If you want to do development and someone sticks you into a non-development role, they'd damn well better be compensating you for the long-term damage they're doing to your CV and it better be all laid out in writing ahead of time for how long you're doing this.

What you need to keep in mind here is that while the company directors have a fiduciary duty to do whatever is in the company's best interests, you have a duty to do whatever is in your best interests, and if someone's decided those are mutually exclusive goals, then you would be most unwise to put the company ahead of your professional career, because it will last a lot longer than that one job...

ChRoMe

Dave! wrote: »

If you do go for a new job, be prepared if they ask you why you want to leave your current job. If you say that you wanted to get back into development, then they may ask you if you brought this up with your current manager, and if not why not.

I'd just say that I was not being challenged any more in my current role and not bother elaborating.

Phoebas

ChRoMe wrote: »

OP just GTFO, you are a developer the market is very nice at the moment

It is possible that the OP has been shafted shifted into support because he's just not that good at development.